After that I saw her daily; gradually our interviews lengthened, and as
she recovered strength our talks wandered from the little incidents and
interests of the sick-room to the general topics of our lives. I told
her of all that had happened to me since her flight. And I told her that
I wanted her and her only of all women.
"Why--oh, why, did you do such a foolish thing?" I asked.
"I did it for your good."
"My dear, have you ever heard the story of the tender-hearted elephant?
No? It was told in a wonderful book published years ago and called
'The Fables of George Washington AEsop.' This is it. There was once an
elephant who accidentally trod on the mother of a brood of newly-hatched
chickens. Her tender heart filled with remorse for what she had done,
and, overflowing with pity for the fluffy orphans, she wept bitterly,
and addressed them thus: 'Poor little motherless things, doomed to face
the rough world without a parent's care, I myself will be a mother to
you.' Whereupon, gathering them under her with maternal fondness, she
sat down on the whole brood.
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